


a foretoken

by spookykingdomstarlight



Category: Star Wars (Marvel Comics), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alignment Swap, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Burgeoning Obsession, First Order Poe Dameron, Kissing, M/M, Occasional Resistance Rogue Terex, Snark, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-12
Updated: 2018-05-12
Packaged: 2019-04-28 02:42:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14439750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spookykingdomstarlight/pseuds/spookykingdomstarlight
Summary: “Maybe I just liked the look of you then,” Terex suggested, offering his winningest smile, the one that pulled the scar at the corner of his mouth, but somehow still made him seem more approachable than his other smiles. It never worked—Terex even at his winningest still looked a lot like a gangster—but Dameron’s eyes did drop to his mouth, which Terex would happily consider a win anyway.





	a foretoken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [celeste9](https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/gifts).



Terex found himself with the muzzle of a blaster right between his eyes and lifted his hands in the universal gesture of wait, don’t shoot. It wasn’t an all that unfamiliar predicament to find himself in, so he didn’t worry too much about it. A lot of people wanted him dead. That was, after all, the cost of success. Nobody wanted mediocre people dead. “I wouldn’t,” he said, “if I were you. Head shots do make such a terrible mess of things. All that—brain matter and bone shards. And not very friendly.”

The man on the safe end of the blaster, one Poe Dameron, First Order ace and all-around thorn-in-the-Resistance-fleet’s side, snorted and tapped the cool metal against Terex’s forehead. Once, twice. Hard enough for Terex to really feel it. When he got back to his scummy motel room—and he was certain he’d get back to his scummy motel room—he would probably see a red mark just above his eyebrows. Looking at the cruel, amused twist of Dameron’s mouth, it wasn’t the only red mark he wanted to be left with.

“What makes you think I’m interested in being friendly?” Dameron asked, conversational, intrigued. “Nobody on Kathin is on Kathin to be friendly.” No, indeed not. Kathin was an independent world, a smuggler’s world, a criminal’s world. Not the sort of planet any self-respecting First Order officer of Poe Dameron’s caliber would be caught dead on. And yet, he was here, standing in the cramped hallway of a filthy cantina that led to even filthier ’freshers and, more importantly, to a backdoor that led to an alley that Terex suspected was Dameron’s true destination.

And the Resistance wanted to know why.

Rather, they wanted Dameron captured and brought back to base to be interrogated about this and everything else he knew and had done because he was a high-value target and those, along with useful intel, were in short supply at the moment. But Terex? Terex wanted to know specifically why a nice boy from FO-occupied space, raised to revere the First Order as the last bastion of stability in the galaxy, purported to be loyal to a fault, would skulk around the kind of place even Nar Shaddaa’s finest stayed clear of. This was the kind of place Terex’s network of thugs and gangs lived for. It wasn’t for the likes of Poe Dameron. It would eat him alive if it could, if it discovered who he was.

This was the only reason Terex had been called in at all.

General Organa did so hate having the taste of his name in her mouth, but he was the only one qualified to come here and not blow the mission or get killed in a pointless scuffle. She always got that sour pucker to her lips when she popped up on his holoprojector in the _Carrion Spike_ with a request and waited with all the joy of a person being led up the executioner’s steps for his conditions. Frankly, he’d throw them all over if someone came along with a better offer, but if the choice was between the loss of the Empire in toto and taking down these children playing at it, well. He’d learned a long time ago that loyalty to a cause was a worthless commodity in the galaxy, particularly where the Imperial Remnant was concerned.

Too bad Terex and impulse control weren’t on the friendliest of terms. Dameron was going to be careful now; he’d look over his shoulder the entire time he was here. All because Terex had dared to follow too closely and got himself caught.

He knew better, but sometimes he didn’t want to _do_ better.

“Maybe I just liked the look of you then,” Terex suggested, offering his winningest smile, the one that pulled the scar at the corner of his mouth, but somehow still made him seem more approachable than his other smiles. It never worked—Terex even at his winningest still looked a lot like a gangster—but Dameron’s eyes did drop to his mouth, which Terex would happily consider a win anyway.

If Dameron suspected anything about Terex’s true motives, he didn’t let on. Maybe he got hit on a lot. That wouldn’t have surprised Terex. With the sharp, clean lines of his jaw and the dark fan of lashes around his eyes and the perfect, pristine stretch of skin across his cheekbones, he’d turn anyone’s head.

“Yuh huh,” Dameron said, but he stowed the blaster in the holster wrapped lovingly around his thigh, clipped it closed with hands well acquainted with pulling the weapon. “Sorry, I don’t fuck strangers in bars. Point of pride.” He lifted his hands and made a shooing gesture. “Got places to be, man. I’m sure you understand.”

If he lost Dameron now, he’d probably lose him for good. The dank, dark roads of Kathin’s back streets invited disappearances—both of the unintended and intended varieties—and Dameron would slip so easily into the shadows now that his suspicion was aroused. Finding him again would be a pain in the ass.

Terex’s hand shot out and gripped Dameron hard around the wrist, grinding the bones together. The jut of Dameron’s ulna poked into the skin of Terex’s palm. He tried not to dwell on that or the fact that he could feel the robust, rhythmic pulse of Dameron’s blood beneath his fingertips, a distraction he didn’t need. His face remained a cool, blank mask for a moment before it flickered and fell away, leaving behind indignance and tamped-down fury.

“Buddy,” he said, even and sharp as the edge of a knife designed to slice effortlessly, kill cleanly, “I’m flattered, but you wanna let go.”

“No,” Terex answered, hoping the denial would act as enough of a distraction while he engaged the light binder he’d slapped around Dameron’s arm. All it took was one flick of Terex’s thumb. And then he let go, smothering a smile of accomplishment behind a look of complete disinterest. “I don’t.”

He had to give Dameron credit, he was quick, realized immediately what Terex had done. “Please,” he scoffed, wiggling his hand around. “You think this is going to stop me?” But when he reached again for his blaster, he struggled, his arm only able to come within a few centimeters of the weapon, like it was protected by a forcefield.

“I made a few modifications. You won’t be going very far and, unfortunately, you won’t be pulling your weapon,” Terex said, faux sympathetic. And when Dameron reached across his body with his opposite hand, Terex threw a punch that landed somewhere in the vicinity of Dameron’s ear. Quick instincts had him ducking out of the way before it could land on that pretty, high cheekbone of his. Still, Terex managed to grab him by the collar of his black leather jacket, tear the blaster from its holster and secure it in the waistband of his own trousers, and then hauled him toward the back door he’d been so keen on exiting through anyway, fumbling for his own blaster while Dameron squirmed. “And now, you’re going to behave.”

“So you’re not just interested in a quick, ’fresher fuck, huh?” Dameron said, a little breathless, anger smouldering beneath the superficially amused words. But he went peaceably enough. “Too bad. I kinda like the moustache.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself so short, Commander Dameron. I would have happily done that, too, if you’d shown any inclination.”

Dameron stilled in the threshold of the rusting, scratched-up, dented door at hearing his own name. It took a shove to get him to move beyond it and he stumbled in surprise when Terex did just that.

“You didn’t think anyone would notice?” Terex asked, all innocence. “With curls as distinctive as yours?” It was true though. As far as Terex knew, no one else realized just who was brushing shoulders with them in the scant days since he landed here. It was impressive given the notoriety he experienced on paper. Anyone would know the name, but apparently no one outside of Resistance and First Order space knew his face. “You’re arrogant. I like that about you. Makes this all very easy.”

“What do you want?” he answered, still managing to keep a lid on his emotions. It was as impressive as it was unnecessary. Terex had never much minded getting shouted at. “For the record, I’m not worth all that much to the First Order. Whatever you’ve heard, they don’t like paying ransoms. And they’ll find a pilot who’s good enough to replace me. No one near on my level, of course, but they’ll make do.” A hint of bitterness crept into his voice. “I’m just a cog in their grand machine.”

Bitterness. Out of precious Poe Dameron’s mouth. Huh.

That, that was interesting. That gave Terex pause. It, more than that, gave him an in. If Leia were here, she’d have jumped on it, grabbed it by the neck, and pressed until it capitulated. But Terex wasn’t Leia and he wasn’t here to turn an ideologue into a different sort of ideologue. If, indeed, Dameron was an ideologue at all. Might’ve been he just liked to fly and didn’t like that the people who let him didn’t appreciate him enough.

He could have been lying entirely, trying to make himself seem less invested than he truly was, but as they crossed into the dim griminess of Kathin’s nighttime, Terex didn’t think so. The sky looked like smudges of green-gray charcoal, dirty and grungy, too bright with light pollution to be truly, irrevocably dark. Shadows still managed to pool across the cracked, uneven pavement of the alley, though, trying to make up for the difference in what small ways they could. This was the kind of place where lies took root, but Terex had intuition on his side. A lie wouldn’t take hold here.

“Cogs have worth,” Terex replied, still holding tight to Dameron’s jacket, his blaster jammed in Dameron’s side, digging deep enough it would probably bruise. Terex hoped it did, if only to leave Dameron with a souvenir.

“I know what I am,” Dameron snapped, elbowing at Terex in an ineffectual bid for… something. All in all, a careless move. Terex might well have accidentally shot him. And perhaps that was what Dameron was hoping for. Maybe it was better, the possibility of a graze and freedom or swift death than being brought to wherever Terex intended to take him. Dameron had the bravery and lack of aversions to risk to make it at least as likely as anything else he could do. But Terex had more control than most people gave him credit for and merely tsked in disappointment.

“General Organa wishes to meet you,” Terex said. “She wouldn’t want you to be a corpse at the time.”

“General—? _You’re_ Resistance?” Dameron laughed, chortled really, an inelegant sound of mocking delight. “You?” He gave Terex a considering sidelong glance. “They must be really desperate.”

Terex’s teeth ground together. “They’re willing to pay. Which means I’m willing to participate in their sad sob story from time to time. You just got lucky.”

“Lucky.” Poe let out one last huff of laughter. “Right.” Though he shifted slightly, Terex didn’t anticipate he would try another half-hearted escape. “Hey, what’s she paying you anyway?”

“More credits than even you have access to, I’m sure.”

Dameron grinned. “What about intel? You trade in that, too, don’t you? Otherwise you never would have found me.” His steps slowed until Terex gave him a pointed shove, reminding him who was in charge here. “How did you find me anyway?”

“A different kind of luck,” Terex replied, purposefully vague. Dameron’s offer wasn’t without its appeal. In fact, whatever he was willing to say would likely have been useful to Terex. He wouldn’t have offered it otherwise. Doubtless, he wouldn’t have squealed about anything Leia would have cared about, but who cared about Leia when he could advance his own standing in the galaxy, when maybe he could take his own shot at the First Order, when he could have it all on his own terms.

“You’ve got people here,” Dameron decided, confident in his conclusion, proud of it even though it wasn’t so wild a conclusion to reach.

“I have people in a lot of places.”

“Yeah?” There was an intriguing hitch in his voice, a loose thread that Terex wanted to pull at. Maybe he would have time. Maybe not.

_Just what have you been getting up to, Commander? Something your superiors wouldn’t like, I’d wager._

Whatever it was, Dameron had covered his tracks so far, but now—now Terex would happily force his people to dig deeper. He hadn’t been lying; it was luck that had brought him here originally, a chance sighting made by one of his smarter subordinates. Knowing there actually was fire to go along with the smoke made Terex’s job a lot easier. Grease a few palms, plant a few spies. If Dameron didn’t want to tell him—and Terex was beginning to suspect he would not, Terex could _smell_ how personal it was—he’d find out on his own.

Didn’t mean whatever else he had to tell Terex was useless, just not quite as interesting. But Terex was nothing if not dedicated to thoroughly investigating every aspect of Dameron’s life it need be; Terex had a nose about these things. He knew when his time wasn’t being wasted.

Finally, a man who was worthy of his not-inconsiderable talents.

Terex grinned. And in the nebulous, sporadic darkness, that grin went unseen.

“What’s your freedom worth to you, Commander?” he asked, voice a low burr, heavy with threat and possibility.

When Dameron grinned in turn, Kathin’s night was kind and exposed it for all the world to see, Dameron’s teeth glinting off the light of one moon suddenly thrust out from behind a sickly cloud.

Good thing there was no one else around to witness it. 

Because Terex was caught by it completely. He wanted it to be for him alone. In fact, for one wild, obscene moment, he thought he might have fought for it in a different lifetime. Were they on the same side, he might have killed for it.

He might kill for it now if it became necessary. Bound captives on Kathin drew attention. Anyone who happened to trundle by may get the idea that he was worth something. And worthwhile things on Kathin ended up stolen or worse, had to be fought for—or worse.

He might have put a shield around Dameron if he could, but unfortunately, his modified pair of binders didn’t have that capability yet. Perhaps he would see if it was even possible to do. Just in case this situation arose again.

Not that he’d have another chance to get Dameron into binders. This was, he knew in his bones, the first and only time he’d get the drop on Dameron this way. Next time, it would be far more difficult, far more fun.

Terex couldn’t say he wasn’t looking forward to it.

They passed another alley, darker than the first, and Dameron body checked him toward it. The one downside to these binders: they gave the wearer far more opportunities to manhandle you when given the chance. Sure, he wouldn’t have gotten more than a few meters before he would’ve felt his hand yanked back toward Terex and the binder would have repelled anything that scanned as a weapon, but he could still do some damage. A very, very small amount of it.

Slamming Terex against the brick wall of some run-down bar or other, he pressed his hand against Terex’s chest. “I’ll tell you this for nothing,” he said, fingers splayed against Terex’s sternum. “The First Order knows about you. If you’re gonna play in Snoke’s backyard, you’re gonna have to be smarter about it than this.”

Terex, hoping Dameron was distracted at least a little bit by their proximity, reached for his unbound hand. There was one last surprise in store for him that Terex would rather it was occupied; he’d discover, if he tried to reach for the locking mechanism currently held in a pouch on Terex’s belt, that his bound hand would be equally repelled by it.

“Good thing I’m smart,” Terex replied, breathier than he would have liked. He felt he could be forgiven though. It was a little difficult to keep his composure when it was so easy to imagine what other body parts Dameron could have chosen to touch instead.

“Is that a fact?” Dameron sniffed and glanced at the hand with which Terex had circled his wrist. Instead of breaking the hold, Dameron pressed close, the hand on his chest lifting to cup the side of his neck, a whole starspray’s worth of energy pulsing through the gesture.

Terex’s heart beat skyrocketed. Heat flooded his face. No doubt his skin was reddening, too, warming to Dameron’s touch, not that Dameron could see the change. Hopefully he couldn’t feel it. Probably he could at the very least feel the way Terex’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, mouth suddenly dry.

It turned out Dameron was kind of an asshole, because he laughed a little. “I really could have gotten away with a fuck, couldn’t I have?” The shadow cast by his eyelashes lengthened as he dropped his eyes. The same shadows grew in the corners of his mouth as his lips lifted. Just in time for him to grab harshly at Terex’s chin and pull him forward. “I’m not that easy, but I will give you what you need.”

What Terex needed, apparently, was the press of Dameron’s mouth against his, surprisingly soft for a man with that much bite in his demeanor and surprisingly insistent. Half of Terex’s thoughts—and this wasn’t unusual, Terex was never quite able to stop himself from calculating angles and odds and motivations—wondered just when Dameron was going to try to fuck him over in all this.

The other half, well. The other half had a lot of things in mind that wouldn’t be hygienic when performed in a back alley on Kathin.

He shut that part of his brain off. It would do him little good to work himself up here. Dameron was already at more of an advantage than Terex generally liked. Still, he allowed himself to enjoy the kiss a little longer, the teasing touch of Dameron’s tongue against his, the sting of teeth clashing, the tiniest of moans. From Dameron, no less. Hours wouldn’t have been enough time to indulge, but he had work to do.

Not the work Leia would have wanted, but hang her. She could find her own way in this galaxy. Terex had better things to do.

With his free hand, he unlatched the pouch and flipped the switch that disengaged the binder. It fell to the ground with a clatter loud enough that Dameron had to have noticed, not that he stopped what he was doing. No, he kept kissing Terex, all while grabbing that hand and squeezing.

Terex had expected a punch, an escape attempt. Instead, Dameron pulled back and winked, the bastard.

“Not so bad as far as prices go,” he said, stepping back, his foot conveniently grinding the binder beneath the heel of his boot. His thumb swiped ponderously over his lower lip and there was a curious hint of—something in his gaze.

 _We’ll meet again_ , Terex thought, both a promise and a threat.

When later Terex received an encrypted data transmission offering all sorts of delightful intel about First Order supply lines, corrupted bureaucrats, and law enforcement protocols for a variety of valuable territories, Terex kept it to himself what he’d discovered about Poe’s proclivities and penchant for helping the downtrodden guerilla fighters on multiple First Order worlds. It wasn’t his business, really, what Poe did in his spare time.

Anything to bring down the First Order. It had nothing at all to do with Poe himself.

And if Poe maybe included an even more heavily encrypted set of coordinates, Terex certainly didn’t follow them to their world of origin.

And he especially didn’t suggest that they find a nice, quiet bar somewhere and share a drink.

And there was no way at all that Poe agreed.


End file.
